Kindle Fire Gaming Gets A Facelift

The Kindle Fire, and its new HD iteration, want to be the gaming tablet of choice. For now, Apple's iPad is the king of mobile gaming, but the Kindle Fire HD can easily catch up. To that end, Amazon is introducing a number of new aesthetic features that developers can take advantage of.

The big change is that Amazon now prominently displays games in their own product category on the Kindle Fire. The game category even supersedes more traditionally popular products like Apps and Books. In fact, games are the first thing customers will see when they navigate through the store.

Aside from their prominence on the store, the Kindle Fire now has a games library. Here players can see all the games that they own, sorted by most recently played. Games that have Amazon GameCircle integration will also display friends, leaderboards and achievements next to each title.

Once a player navigates to a game's page, they will be greeted by a summary page that details your friend's ranking, player scores and the next achievement to earn.

The advent of Amazon GameCircle also brings some new features to social gaming on the Kindle Fire. It's no longer just about comparing high scores or playing together, but comparing achievements. Kindle Fire gamers have the potential to become a slave to whatever sick and twisted achievements you as a developer can come up with.

Amazon points out that developers need only integrate GameCircle achievement and leaderboards to their games to take advantage of the new Kindle Fire gaming experience. Games that integrate GameCircle are also highlighted in the Amazon Appstore, thus increased visibility. Once again, Amazon makes a compelling argument for tailoring games to their platform. It will become apparent in the coming months if developers take them up on their offer.